‘Professor hunters’ dig in on the digital battlefield

According to an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, left-wing students have a new hobby: harassing professors with political views contrary to their own. They do so anonymously, and with considerable impact. Online ratings of professors are already controversial, but this is a whole new dimension.

One of the victims is Jörg Baberowski, professor of Eastern European history at the Humboldt University of Berlin, who claims that the “fanatics” have been pursuing and stalking him for more than a year, with “ever more rubbish on the internet”. Professor Baberowski complains that they photograph him whenever he appears in public. He is highly regarded and, in 2012, won the Leipzig Book Fair prize for his book on Stalin. However, he has come under fire from the Left, who accuse him of relativising Germany’s guilt over the Second World War.